Why Do Cable Modems Drop Offline?

A Cable Modem requires three main things to remain online once it is connected
and operational:

 Clean RF plant with a carrier-to-noise consistently above 25 dB in the

Upstream, and above 35 in the Downstream.

 Unicast polls from the CMTS every 30 seconds (keepalives). These are
unicast transmit opportunities for this modem's assigned SID, in which it
can send a RNG-REQ to the CMTS. If the cable modem does not receive
a unicast transmit opportunity within T4 seconds (30 seconds) it has to
time out and re-initialise it's MAC layer. So if there is a problem (RF) in
the downstream, the cable modem might not "see" this unicast transmit
opportunity, and drop offline.

 If the CMTS does not get a reply from the CM to the unicast transmit
opportunity, the CMTS will poll the modem 16 times in short succession
in order to try and get an answer. The modem is considered offline by the
CMTS if there is no reply after these retries.

DOCSIS Cable Upstream RF Specifications

Specifications UPSTREAM DOCSIS Specifications1

System/Channel
5 to 42 MHz (North America)
Frequency range
5 to 65 MHz (Europe)

Transit delay from the most distant CM to

< 0.800 millisecond (msec)
the nearest CM or CMTS.

Carrier to noise ratio 25 dB

Carrier to ingress power ratio > 25 dB

> 25 dB (QPSK2)3
Carrier to interference ratio
> 25 dB (16 QAM4)3

Carrier hum modulation < -23 dBc5 (7%)

Burst noise Not longer than 10 µsec at a 1 kHz

 average rate for most cases.

Amplitude ripple 0.5 dB/MHz

Group delay ripple 200 ns/MHz

-10 dBc @ < 0.5 µsec

-20 dBc @ < 1.0 µsec

Micro reflections (single echo)
-30 dBc @ > 1.0 µsec

Seasonal/diurnal signal level variation Not greater than 8 dB min to max.

Digital Signal Levels

+8 to +58 dBmV (QPSK)
From cable modem (upstream)
+8 to +55 dBmV (16 QAM)

-16 to +26 dBmV, depending on symbol

Input amplitude to modem card (upstream)
rate.

Signal as relative to adjacent video signal -6 to -10 dBc

1
DOCSIS specifications are baseline settings for a DOCSIS-compliant, two-way
data-over-cable system.
2
QPSK = Quadrature Phase-Shift Keying: a method of modulating digital signals
onto a radio-frequency carrier signal using four phase states to code two digital
bits.
3
These settings are measured relative to the digital carrier. Add 6 or 10 dB, as
determined by your company's policy and derived from the initial cable network
setup, relative to the analog video signal.
4
QAM = Quadrature Amplitude Modulation: a method of modulating digital
signals onto a radio-frequency carrier signal involving both amplitude and phase
coding.
5
dBc = decibels relative to carrier.

DOCSIS Cable Downstream RF Specifications

Specification DOWNSTREAM DOCSIS Specifications1

System/Channel

RF channel spacing (bandwidth) 6 MHz

Transit delay2 0.800 millisecond (msec)

Carrier to noise ratio 35 dB

Carrier-to-interference ratio for total power (discrete

> 35 dB
and broadband ingress signals).

Composite triple beat distortion < -50 dBc3

Carrier to second order < -50 dBc

Cross-modulation level < -40 dBc

Amplitude ripple 0.5 dB in 6 MHz

Group delay 75 ns4 in 6 MHz

-10 dBc @ < 0.5 µsec

-15 dBc @ < 1.0 µsec

Micro reflections bound for dominant echo
-20 dBc @ < 1.5 µsec

-30 dBc @ > 1.5 µsec

Carrier hum modulation < -26 dBc (5%)

Not longer than 25 µsec at a 10

Burst noise
kHz average rate.

Seasonal/diurnal signal level variation 8 dB

Signal level slope (50 to 750 MHz) 16 dB

Maximum analog video carrier level at CM input,

+17 dBmV
inclusive of above signal level variation.

Minimum analog video carrier level at CM input,

-5 dBmV
inclusive of above signal level variation.

Digital Signal Levels

Input to cable modem (level range, one channel) -15 to +15 dBmV

Signal as relative to adjacent video signal -6 to -10 dBc

1
DOCSIS specifications are baseline settings for an DOCSIS-compliant, two-way
data-over-cable system.
2
Transit delay is defined as the "round trip" from the cable headend to the furthest
customer and back.
3
dBc = decibels relative to carrier.
4
ns = nanoseconds.

Note:  For a full set of the specifications for the European Standard, please read
RF Specifications.

For a document on how to troubleshoot RF issues in your cable plant, go to the

Determining RF or Configuration Issues on the CMTS document. For more
information on RF measurements using a spectrum analyzer refer to Connecting
the Cisco uBR7200 Series Router to the Cable Headend.

Periodic Ranging (CM View)

The CMTS MUST provide each CM a Periodic Ranging opportunity at least once
every T4 seconds. The CMTS MUST send out Periodic Ranging opportunities at
an interval sufficiently shorter than T4 that a MAP could be missed without the
CM timing out. The size of this "subinterval" is CMTS dependent. The CM
MUST reinitialize its MAC after T4 seconds have elapsed without receiving a
Periodic Ranging opportunity. The default value for T4 is 30 seconds.

T4 is defined as "wait for unicast ranging opportunity". This is the time a modem
will wait to get a dedicated transmit opportunity from the CMTS. The value is
defined to be minimum 30 seconds, and maximum 35 seconds per SP-RFIv1.1-
I03-991105.
If a UBR9xx modem goes offline because of a T4 timeout, you will see following
error messages in the debug cable mac log:

router#debug cable mac log verbose

....
11:05:07: 39907.082
CMAC_LOG_T4_TIMER
11:05:07: %UBR900-3-
RESET_T4_EXPIRED: R04.0 Received
Response to
Broadcast Maintenance Request, But
no Unicast Maintenance
opportunities received. T4 timeout.
11:05:07: 39907.090
CMAC_LOG_RESET_T4_EXPIRED
....
This usually points to a problem in the RF, so the troubleshooting should focus on
that.

Periodic Ranging (CMTS View)

The CMTS will retry polling the CM until it either receives a reply or until the
number of retries (default is sixteen) are exhausted. At that time the CM is
removed from the poll list and considered offline.

A way to detect if a modem is constantly ranging is to use the show cable flap-
list command.
Measuring the Correct Parts of the System

There are a number of ways to gauge the speed and performance of a system,
however it is important to understand exactly what parts of the system are being
tested. Consider the diagram below.

In the following example, a simple FTP download and upload test is performed
between a CPE device connected to a cable modem, and an FTP server on the
cable service provider's network. The cable modem has downloaded a DOCSIS
configuration file that allows a download speed of up to 256 Kbps and an upload
speed of up to 64 Kbps. In this test, a 3 Mb file has been placed on the FTP server
at IP address 172.17.110.132. The user of the CPE device is given a username and
password in order to be able to log into the FTP server so they can download this
file from the FTP server, and then upload it back to the FTP server. The command
line FTP utility is used to perform the transfer. This utility is available in virtually
all versions of Microsoft Windows and UNIX.

A similar test is conducted by having an HTTP web server set up in the service
provider's network and performing an HTTP download.
Figure 2

Note:
!--- Comments are in blue.

C:\>ftp 172.17.110.132

!--- Initiate the FTP session to

the server.

Connected to 172.17.110.132.
220 Solaris FTP server (SunOS 5.6)
ready.
User (172.17.110.132:(none)):
anonymous

!--- Enter the FTP server username.

331 Guest login ok, send your

complete e-mail address as
password.
Password: user@samplenetwork.com.au

!--- Enter the FTP server password.

230 User anonymous logged in.

ftp> dir
!--- View the contents of the
current directory.

200 PORT command successful.

150 ASCII data connection for
/bin/ls (64.104.207.118,1282) (0
bytes).
total 74932
-rw-r--r-- 1 root other
3276800 Oct 10 19:31 cable.txt

!--- A 3 M file that you can

download.

226 ASCII Transfer complete.

ftp: 105 bytes received in 0.12
Seconds 2.46 Kbytes/sec.
ftp> bi

!--- Turn on Binary File transfer

mode.

200 Type set to I.

ftp> get cable.txt

!--- Retrieve the file cable.txt

and wait for it to download.

200 PORT command successful.

150 Binary data connection for
cable.txt (192.168.1.13,3154)
(3276800 bytes).
226 Binary Transfer complete.
ftp: 3276800 bytes received in
111.35 Seconds 29.43 Kbytes/sec.

!--- Download complete. It seems

that the download occurred
!--- at 29.43 Kbytes/sec, which
equals 235 Kbits/sec. This is about
90 percent of
!--- the allowed 256 Kbps download
rate for the modem being tested.

ftp> put cable.txt

!--- Begin uploading the file. You

need to make sure you have
!--- the correct access in order to
upload a file to the FTP server or
!--- you may get an access-denied
error.

200 PORT command successful.

150 Binary data connection for
cable.txt (192.168.1.13,3157).
226 Transfer complete.
ftp: 3276800 bytes sent in 432.49
Seconds 7.58 Kbytes/sec.

!--- Upload Complete. Here you see

the upload
!--- occurred at 7.58 Kbytes/sec,
!--- which is equivalent to 60.64
Kbits/sec. This
!--- is about 90 percent of the
allowed
!--- 64 Kbps upload rate for the
modem being tested.
 ftp> quit

!--- Exit the FTP client

application.

221 Goodbye.
While the FTP transfer is occurring, it is possible to monitor the progress of the
test on the CMTS using the show interface cable X/Y sid Z counters command
where cable X/Y is the cable interface the modem under test is connected to, and
Z is the Service ID (SID) number of the modem under test. This command shows
how many bytes are being transferred from or to a particular cable modem. For
example, if the CPE being tested is behind a cable modem with MAC address
0001.9659.4461.